To mark
the visit of World Trade Organisation
Director-General-in-waiting, Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, GATT
Watchdog. has launched a postcard campaign against the WTO's
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). GATT Watchdog
has also produced factsheets on GATS and local government,
and GATS and healthcare for use in the local body and
district health board elections.

"The Government must not
participate in any further international negotiations on
trade in services until a thorough, independent assessment
of the impacts of GATS on basic services in New Zealand and
internationally has been conducted. It should withdraw its
services offer in all trade agreements - including the
bilateral deal with Hong Kong," said a GATT Watchdog
spokesman, Aziz Choudry.

"Under GATS, governments agree to
open the economy to foreign suppliers of certain services.
GATS threatens to restrict a government's ability to ensure
access to affordable, adequate basic services for all by
removing any restrictions and internal government
regulations in the area of service delivery considered to be
"barriers to trade." It also has serious implications for
the powers of local authorities"

"Services are big
business. They make up between half and three quarters of
all economic activity. To the world's transnational
corporations they are a lucrative market which they want to
control. As the European Commission says: "GATS is not just
something which exists between governments. It is first and
foremost an instrument for the benefit of
business.""

"Under GATS and in sectors in which it has
made commitments, a government cannot treat service
suppliers from one WTO country better than those from
another. It can't give better treatment to its locals that
in gives to foreign suppliers in the services for which it
has made GATS commitments. It cannot limit the access of
foreign suppliers to its market in those services by
imposing limits on the total number of facilities or
operations, requirements for local content or local
hiring."

"GATS is an extension of the same free market
policies which the Labour/Alliance government was elected to
reject. It is a backdoor to more privatisation. These
services are not mere commodities to be bought and sold in a
competitive market - many are essential to full
participation in society," he said.

A June 26 2001 New
Zealand government document submitted to the WTO Council for
Trade in Services states: "First and foremost, New Zealand
will actively encourage Members to explore ways in which
existing commitments in all services sectors, in terms of
both market access and national treatment, can be
progressively liberalised"

"New Zealand already has
probably the most wide-ranging GATS commitments of any WTO
member. Now the government is prepared to offer all services
- including all education, health and water services - to
the world market. This is outrageous".

"In Britain, over
260 MPs called for an independent assessment of the likely
impact of GATS on key services. In Canada, the Union of
British Columbia Municipalities is seeking a carve-out from
coverage by the GATS. With local elections coming up soon,
and a general election next year, it's high time New Zealand
politicians - national and local - faced up to this issue,
before the policy options available to future governments
which want to reverse market policies become even more
limited" said Mr Choudry.

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